Beeston Public House Checks - by Grenville Chamberlain

Background - these metal checks, each with a face value, were issued by public houses. Up to December 2020, over 300 such checks, referring to over 200 separate establishments, have been recorded for Nottinghamshire as a whole. Over 40% of them displayed the name of a licensee, his initials or a countermark allowing the checks to be dated within the parameters of his tenure at that house. The earliest check can be dated to 1850/51 and the latest was made c1912. However, some of these checks were certainly in use up to the Second World War. With one exception, all checks are made of brass and measure between 23mm and 36.5mm.

Usage - A small number of the checks used in the City of Nottingham indicate what they were used for - examples being for bowling clubs (skittles), money clubs (savings clubs) and for sick & annual clubs. In general, they were redeemable for beer and perhaps food, etc or to pay for facilities - such as skittles or billiards - at the issuing premises and may have been issued at a discount on the face value or given away as an incentive or reward. In that way, both issuer and customer would benefit.

Although no check used in the Beeston area shows an actual use on it, some 30 years ago I interviewed Mrs Nellie Clarke, then in her 80s, whose father had been licensee of the Rose Inn (or Rose of England Inn) and later moved next door to the Star Inn. Mrs Clarke herself had succeeded her father as licensee of the Star Inn and she told me that she recalled a sick & annual club that met at the Star used the check mentioned below as part of a system we now know as "wet rents." Thus would imply that a group which met at a particular establishment would "pay" for the use of its facilities by the purchase of checks for the use of its members. This, I believe that many, if not all the checks that do not state a use may well have been used by sick & annual clubs meeting in the specified pub. About the same time that I interviewed Mrs Clarke I also interviewed Mr Ted Gaynor who had been secretary of the Edward VII Sick, Death & Annual Club which met at the Durham Ox in Beeston and he told me that his club used hand written signed notes that were used in the same way as the brass checks.

My father George Chamberlain, was a member of the Royal Oak Sick & Annual Club on Villa Street Beeston and after he died I found his rule book. Rule number 30 states the following -

"All cases of sickness and general expenses of management, shall be met by members' contributing 3d. per week. On every night marked on the Contribution Card as a quarter-night, every member shall pay an additional 3d. He shall receive a ticket entitling him to that amount of refreshment at any time it is tendered. All members not having paid either personally or by deputy by 9.30 shall forfeit their share, the residue to come in to be consumed by the members present at the discretion of the Committee any person paying for a member shall receive his ticket."

Beeston Area Checks - at the time of writing (2005), eleven checks for the Beeston/Chilwell area had been examined and they referred to ten different establishments. However, I had actually recorded 13 specimens for the area (see "Commercial Inn" below).

Now, in 2020, I am delighted to have acquired a token for the Victoria Hotel which is now included in those pictured and described below.

This means that the checks at present known for Beeston & Chilwell, all of which were probably issued during the period 1890-1910, are as follows: